BUFFALO – He has one of the most familiar names in this NCAA tournament. And he may also have one of the strongest motivations to help his team survive the first weekend.

“My dad won’t be able to make it here,” said D.J. Strawberry, son of Darryl and an ace defender for Maryland who also happened to lead the Terps in (15.2) and rebounds (4.3) this season. “Hopefully, we can make it to St. Louis [the site of the Midwest Regional and also his father’s current residence] so he can see me. He’s trying to get me pumped. He’s just as excited as the team is.”

Buffalo’s HSBC Arena is serving as something of a gathering place for second-generation athletes. There is Strawberry. There is Davidson’s Stephen Curry, whose father, Dell, was a longtime NBA sharpshooter. And there is Duke freshman Gerald Henderson. His name, until recently, was known mainly for his father, Gerald, a former Knick and two-time NBA champion with the Celtics. But it reached a level of national infamy for the hard foul he delivered late in a recent game with North Carolina that crunched Tyler Hansbrough’s nose.

Still, there remains something about the surname Strawberry.

“Each player is different,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “D.J. had a lot of extra attention coming in with his name being Strawberry. You talk to him a lot and make sure he’s OK. He has really become a great leader and a great guy on the team.”

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A.J. Graves, a junior for Butler, finished second in the nation in foul shooting this season, missing only six of 143 attempts. That’s a remarkable .958 performance that included a string of 63 straight, the third-longest single-season streak in NCAA history. He went exactly two months, from Nov. 25 to Jan. 25, without missing a free throw. Only Gonzaga’s Derek Raivio had a higher percentage, 146-for-152, .961. Asked yesterday what his all-time personal best for consecutive free throws is, Graves reported: “169.”